Conclusion of the Matter

In my week 3 assessment, I had scored myself at 6, 8 and 10 in physical health, spiritual health and psychological health respectively. I had also set up some realistic and achievable goals for myself. 6 weeks down the line, I can say that my physical health is at an 8 and my spiritual health is at a 10 as well as my psychological health. I have been able to constantly exercise and eat right and were it not for the cold weather that is messing up my schedule, I would envision myself being at 10 but I am work in progress and I know that I will slowly but surely get there. I have also become more connected to my spirituality and become more deeper in my walk with my Lord and I feel that it has changed my life outlook. I am continually serving where I get an opportunity and thus a 10. As for psychological health, I feel better and satisfied with where I am in life.
this class has been able to validate some of the things that my faith has taught me and through research studies, I feel glad that my fail is not  a fluke or a fraud. I am now more inclined to intercede for the sick, forgive everyone, give away love to everyone and be bale to be grateful for life and all the blessings that come my way. The contemplative exercises were very frustrating but I do believe that with practice as well as the right mind-set, It is possible to accomplish them. As I continue on with my career, it is my intention to help my clients approach health and wellness holistically and not be a professional who takes the western approach to medicine but be able to help them look at all the aspects of their lives. As a family and marriage therapist, I believe that I will be better placed to approach issues in the manner we have learned in this class. The bottom line is that this class has been an eye opener and I do intend to use the text books for my future career path.

Personal Flourishing.

        Health and wellness professionals have given their lives to help and assist their clients to develop the highest levels of health and wellness and ultimately integral health. For that level of health to be attained, the ‘whole’ person in terms of body, mind and spirit must be taken care of completely and thus a holistic approach to health should be used. In this profession, the experiences of the professionals will go a long way in helping their clients and it is my personal opinion that the professional will need to be a living example of what is possible and thus they need to develop themselves first before they seek to help their clients. The journey to integral health will need a guide who has been there, seen it, and they are now able to lead and guide others instead of pointing out a path that they do not know the pitfalls or the terrain (Dacher, 2006). I consider myself to have made tremendous steps in all the aspects but I feel that I need to attain the highest level in each aspect and I am therefore all areas are important to me and I have goals to achieve in all areas.

In the spiritual wellness part, I am a spiritual person who has got very strong Christian convictions, I believe that I am created to be able to serve other people and I gauge that by my involvement in service as well as how I am able to be useful to other people. I know that I am not perfect because there are some things I should be doing but I’m not doing them but at least I can be able to trace my steps and see where I am at. In the physical part, I am able to assess my nutrition and my exercise regimens. I try to track what I am eating and what makes me to eat and I believe that it can be tied up with psychological health. The way I deal with situations will also affect my physical health. If I am able to react positively to situations that may be stressful in my day to day life, I will also be able to control eating by impulse and I therefore believe that daily assessment of both my reaction and my nutrition. I feel that I am doing well in all the aspects but still there is room for more improvement.

        I have a goal of maintaining my physical wellness by at least doing 15miles run per weeks as well as making sure that I eat healthy. If I am able to maintain that, I will keep my weight in check. In the spiritual aspect, I have a goal of making sure that I serve my community especially the homeless every month and looking to increase that to at least twice per month. As for mental health, I feel that being physically and spiritually healthy will translate to better psychological state. I am however trying to make sure that I am able to maintain a level head especially in my workplace where sometimes the clients and co-workers may drive someone to react angrily and be upset.

        Practices that will foster physical health like I had mentioned earlier is to exercise regularly and watching my nutrition. I am cutting down so much on meat in my diet and am glad I have been able to do away with soda. As for exercises, I am currently doing at least 10 miles run per week and I am already seeing the effects of the changes. Spiritually, I have found the loving-kindness practice to be something that works wonders and I am planning on doing the practice daily as well as the subtle mind practice in form of taking some time to do some meditation and I am sure that a calm abiding mind will be possible. Visualization is one of my other exercises that I plan on using consistently for the sake of psychological wellness. It is my belief that meditation in whatever form will be beneficial for my psychological wellbeing and having a consistent and intentional program of doing it will be beneficial in all aspects.

       In this journey of integral health, I believe that accountability is a virtue and it is my aim to be accountable to someone and by doing so, the person will be able to help me know where I am and what I need to do. Looking at the eventual benefits and being able to internalize what I want to be and where I want to be maybe a motivating factor. I am well aware that the journey is not a simple one but knowing and having a role model who have made it will also serve as motivation and I am planning on keeping my goals in focus and being accountable to a teacher who will be able to point out my missteps and help me overcome them and keep on course. 

References

Dacher, E. (2006). Human Flourishing. Chapter 14. Integral Health; The Path to Human Flourishing. Laguna Beach, CA. Basic Health Publications

Visualization and Loving kindness.

Of all the exercises we have been doing in this class, visualization and loving kindness appealed the most to me. These exercises were sort of easy to learn and the effects were also tremendous. It is my wish to spend a few minutes each day to be able to do either of them. I know that before I go to bed and when I wake up in the morning I have my personal study time and I would use that time to be able to connect with my Aesclepius and from that meeting. Both of these exercises involve dwelling on my wise person and being able to transfer their effects on myself and others around me and by being able to do that daily, my mind will not only find peace, but will also be able to deal with other people well.  I am very sure that my days will be lightened up, I will go through stressors and other situations with a mind that is bale to look in deeper for peace. I am also certain that I will be able to view my work as an opportunity to offer loving-kindness and therefore I will work with a positive attitude. I am daily trying to integrate some aspects of this class and other exercises I have been doing before and I must confess that it is very possible to gain integral health with practice as well as intention.

Meeting Aesclepius Jesus.

For some reason, all through this class I have been finding some really identical principles between the contemplative practices as described by Dacher and others with what my Christian faith teaches me. As i doing this week practice, I focused on the one person who is my model and my savior. I was able to go through the process and it is indeed true that although there are still some distracting thoughts here and there throughout the process, by focusing on Jesus, I could feel the deeper relaxation and the deeper feeling of the mind leaving the outer confused state to the deeper calm abiding state. I believe that Dacher is right when he says that it will take time and also finding a good teacher to be able to attain the level of inner peace he described but I also believe that it will depend on where the person is in their psychospiritual journey. By taking time daily to incorporate contemplative practices, exercising and proper nutrition as well as developing good and healthy relationships, I believe that integral health within reach.
I would find it really hard to make any positive change in my life if for example I go to a doctor with an addiction issue and then learn that the doctor is addicted as I am and yet he is givimg me all these tips on how to overcome my addictions. the question I would ask is how can the tips work on me if they have not worked on him. The same would apply in integral health and since a teacher should be knowledgeable than the students, we should also seek to go where we would want our clients to go. That would only happen if we practice the principles of integral health and make all efforts to attain and thus be a worthy guide to our clients. I am making the necessary steps that will help me develop wellness in my body, mind and spirit.

Integral Assessment

As I was doing the loving-kindness exercise, I had some hard time at first trying to connect to the person that I find lots of love from. However, I was finally able to and that led me into deep in my inner person and I had a time to reconnect with myself as well as a time to get a good look at myself. I found out that there are areas in my life I needed to take a closer look at and I found out that it was indeed very relaxing trying to offer the same love ad kindness to someone who was in suffering.
After now taking the assessment, I found out that there are some connections between the area need development and all the four quadrants. I am a very religious person and I have grown up being committed to my faith but as time went by, it all became a routine. I gradually started to be reckless in my interpersonal area, biological area as well as my worldly area. Life soon started to look kind of mixed up and as I was looking into my psycho-spiritual area, I have realized that the core beliefs that made me a better person are eroded and I have decided to spend more time in connecting with my faith through bible study and prayer. When I decided to do that, I was reminded that I need to serve other people, love all, take care of my body and understand that I am here for a little while.
I am now seriously exercising, I have been going through my job and other assignments with the spirit of servant hood as well as trying to show more love and kindness to not only my family, but to ll people I come across daily. As I do so, I am feeling that I am becoming more and more less stressed and my mind and body are feeling energized. I now believe that the holistic view of integral health is very possible and that it is also practical. I am looking forward to continuing my journey and get better as I go along.

Subtle Mind

I did not have a clear idea where this exercises were headed to. I had very mixed feelings and I could not see myself being able to do anything in terms of the exercises. I struggled the fist two exercises but the loving-kindness exercise really changed my mindset. There was really that aspect of the mind and body attaining some level of relaxation by just focusing on an external person. This week would not have been easier were it not for last week. By trying to focus on the  loving-kindness exercise last week, it makes it easier to focus on the internal me and thus be able to get that relaxation feeling. this is brought out during the breathing exercise and the process of bringing the thoughts together and avoid wandering off. However, it is not as simple as it looks but I am developing a mindset that I can be able to do it and I am getting there.

        Just like I said i my earlier blogs, the hustles of life had made it hard for me to maintain a healthy lifestyle that involved good nutrition and exercise. I gained some significant weight and I realized that even my mind felt cluttered and clogged. I decided to put more emphasis on my Christian faith and become more connected to God and after sometime, I felt motivated to start exercising and what happened was just amazing. My attitudes changed, I felt light all over and that enabled me to get even deeper in my faith. I believe that's the benefits of wellness and they affect every aspect of our lives. Coupled with the exercise we are doing in this class, the connection is becoming more and more clearer.

Mental Workout

I had declared my frustrations with the first exercise and to some degree the second. for this exercise, I made a decision to put all my efforts into it. It is just amazing how it is possible to focus on someone who has tremendous influence on me and then get to feel the same character and the 'goodness' of the person permeating our inner being. It is therefore true that we can be able to train our minds to dwell on the loving-kindness, subtle mind and the wisdom that can help us maintain a level head in a world full of negativity, turmoil and full of bad news.
By being able to workout our minds in the form of contemplative thinking and also through the deliberate efforts of doing the exercises that will strengthen our minds to beat off  all these negative aspects of our minds. Just like we cannot attain physical health by just seating around and eating anything we want to, we cannot workout out minds whole at the same time taking in all the junk around us into our minds. I now believe that the west has neglected this aspect and we have been taught to believe that medicines can take care of all our ailments. I am hopeful that we can be able to make the necessary changes in our own lives and at the same time try to do the same in our individual careers.